Please be patient with me as I try to figure all of this out. I apologize in advance if you can’t find what you are looking for as some links aren’t working or even appearing. Hopefully, things will be back to normal soon!

Like this:

Last Saturday, my mom and I got off work early. She insisted we go shopping. Okay, fine. She is in the market for a new bed.

She may have even asked the saleslady if she could spend the night to thoroughly check out the bed. Sassy didn’t know what to make of the awkward situation.

When we got home, I was startled by this when I went to open my car door.

Jasper is such a creeper cat.

It really is a miracle that I haven’t run over him in the garage. He has no fear of my car.

Later that night, we went to my niece Myo’s 18th birthday party. I cannot believe she is an official adult now!

Costco cake for the win!

It was a fun evening with lots of great Mexican food that I, as usual, forgot to take a picture of because I was too busy eating it. Let’s face it, the only reason there is a picture of the cake is because I was forced to pause by the whole “blow out the candles” tradition.

Later when it was time to leave, I couldn’t find Sassy. I realized I hadn’t seen her in at least 30 minutes. I wasn’t worried, I knew she was in the house somewhere, I just wasn’t sure where she was exactly. Then I saw the top of my dad’s head across the room sitting on the couch. I knew immediately Sassy would be next to him.

Bon Jovi’s Slippery When Wet concert was my first concert and my first date!

2. Four go-to meals you’d love to learn to cook or can cook really well:

Anything! Seriously, I am a basic cook at best. But let’s be honest here, I don’t really care to learn to cook anything well. Cooking well is not something I will ever take the time to learn. No desire. But if I had to pick one thing, it would be a Chocolate Bag dessert like the one at McCormick & Schmick’s.

Concealer, cream blush (because I could use it as lip color, too!), eye liner and mascara. I honestly would feel naked with just four make-up items. My make-up is natural looking, but it is a full face of make-up and I NEVER leave home without it on.

My favorite mascara right now is Maybelline New York Volume Express Mega Plush Washable Mascara.

Like this:

Church Sunday morning was a long one. A good service, but a long one. It also included my 4-month old niece throwing up on me midway through it. My fault, I’m a baby hog. I’m okay with that fact. Either way, after church we needed a little something to boost our energy afterwards.

Good night, talk about a sugar coma. After that stop, we did a little grocery shopping for the week. Then it was time for the thing I had been looking forward to all week-long!…

Exploring a new trail! We had spotted this trail driving back from our hike last week. I couldn’t wait to get back to it. And it did not disappoint!

This trail started out narrow and fairly flat, but then it started to get interesting with some fun inclines and declines.

There were a few bridges.

OMG Becky called this one “shady.” Not really sure what she meant by that…

Lots of rocks and tree roots to watch out for.

A bit of ice and mud, but not nearly as much as last weekend.

And then the trail leveled out, widen and I could see a fence at the end. I immediately knew where this trail ended at!…

The native animal enclosure! Buffalo and elk!

After finishing that trail, I was ready for some more fun. We soon found a different trail on another part of the lake. It was more difficult than the first trail. I loved it, of course!

There was an entire other side of this trail left for us to explore next time. AND I saw another trail on the other side of the native animal enclosure to try sometime, too! Now if the weather will cooperate and continue with these gorgeous Sundays. Our weather is currently changing. Weatherman says today will feel 75 degrees colder than it did yesterday. Yikes. But fingers crossed it rebounds for the weekend again!

Like this:

This, my friends, is the proverbial “life is a box of chocolates” chocolates.

(Actually, they are a box of amazing Christopher Elbow Artisanal Chocolates! So amazing, in fact, I refuse to share with my children. Every man, woman and child for himself when it comes to the sweets! You know it had to be said.)

I am still trying to figure out this whole new job with more hours, blogger, mom, runner, me, balance thing. I feel like I am finally getting the hang of the job. It doesn’t occupy my mind off-hours as much as it did when I started mid-November. It probably didn’t help that I started right at the beginning of the holiday/stress season either. Now things are feeling more settled and I feel like I can breathe a bit. And breathing for me means blogging. I can do it more often, hopefully, and not feel guilty about taking time away from other things.

Like this:

Saturday I had the privilege of chauffeuring OMG Becky around for her day of Homecoming festivities. As soon as I got home from work a little after 1:00 PM, I had to change clothes and go pick up the flowers for both her and her date. Next up was a stop to wash and vacuum my car.

Our first stop on what would be the longest Homecoming day ever, was my parents house. OMG Becky’s date met us there with this dad and brother. Love, love, love the color of her dress!

See the boutineer? We tried, unsuccessfully, no less than five times to pin that to his shirt. Why does it have to be so hard?!

After taking pictures there, we went to my brother’s to take pictures with my niece and her date.

After that photo session, we went back to my parents’ house to drop off Sassy for the evening. Next up was our trail. OMG Becky’s date wanted to see where we ran and take a few pictures there.

Then it was on to meet at one of OMB Becky’s friend’s house before going on to a location they had picked for group photos.

As you can see in the background of this photo, our group was not the only one to think of this place. It was packed with other kids in their finest.

After pictures, we headed to Carrabba’s for dinner. I had the privilege of sitting with three other moms at a table next to the kids. I’m pretty sure the kids would have preferred to have us sitting farther away! I’m not sure where they time went, but we were there for over two hours! It did not feel like that long at all.

Then it was time for the main event! I took my carload of kids to the school for the actual homecoming dance. I picked up Sassy and went home thinking I wouldn’t hear from them again for another two hours when the dance was over at 10:00 PM. I was wrong. Barely an hour later, I got the call to come get them. The dance was a bust. Apparently, no one was dancing because of the music selections being played and there were long pauses between the songs.

Sassy and I picked up OMG Becky and her date, we stopped for ice cream and then back to our house to watch a movie before taking her date home in time for his curfew. We didn’t get home until almost 11:30 PM. I was exhausted!

I do not remember Homecoming being such a big deal when I was in high school. In fact, no one even went to the Homecoming dances at our school. We only went to see our friends in the Homecoming court and then would leave. And the Homecoming court were the only people really dressed up. It certainly wasn’t an all day affair. Of course, at that time, the dance was on the same day as the football game. Now the game is the night before. I guess that lends more opportunity to make the dance a more grand affair.

Either way, the kids all looked lovely and it was a lot of fun to be a part of. The other moms and I were talking at dinner about how this is the last year we will get to be such a big part of the day. Next year, all of our kids will be legal drivers and not need us. That makes me sad.